[blackzarg]

Point taken. I agree with the performance being very important. I know a lot of people with big speaker systems and large subwoofers enjoy the Erik Kunzel / Cincinnati 1812 Festival Overture, but that is one of the most unmusical performances of the piece. I'm embarrassed to demo that to my friends (the 1812 by Jarvi / Gothenburg, on the other hand, is superb!)

That being said, it's always nice to find a recording that has a great performance and great sonics.

Quote:

Originally Posted by khaos974 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Don't bother with HD track, standard CD quality (44kHz/16 bit) is perfectly fine, what makes a track shine is how well the sound engineered mastered it. And you won't make the difference unless you have "golden ears" and some very good gear. I would rather focus on getting "killer music" than "killer quality", learn to enjoy the music first, some of the best music I've heard (eg minor swing by Django Reinhard) is horribly recorded. For now the most convenient medium remains CDs (mostly because of the choice).

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdferguson /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well said. Too many people think higher bit rates and depths automatically confer some sort of musical magic to a recording; they become obsessed with the hardware and software used to produce the music, and lose sight of the music itself. I've been down the rabbit hole of listening to the equipment rather than the music. I understand the seductive appeal of chasing the holy grail of sound quality via HDCD, DVD-Audio, SACD, 24-bit/96 kHz downloads, etc. But when you start down that path, your musical choices shrink to a vanishingly small universe. You spend hours searching for music that fits your gear rather than music you really want to listen to. I'm (mostly) cured of this obsession because I realized that most, if not all, the music I want to listen to are on regular old CDs. Just rip them (losslessly), get a good DAC, amp and speakers, then forget about the hardware and ENJOY THE MUSIC.

 

[busyx2]

One of the big dilemma is that a lot of times, a super-duper audiophile grade recording comes with so-so music/performance. Frustrating!

 

[blackzarg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by busyx2 /img/forum/go_quote.gif One of the big dilemma is that a lot of times, a super-duper audiophile grade recording comes with so-so music/performance. Frustrating!

I've found a lot of performances by Telarc are like this. Great sound engineering, but mediocre performances.

 

[IAmAUser]

But occasionally you do hit upon that magic combination of great performance and great sound quality.

Threshold of Night
Stone Rose

 

[tim3320070]

Quote:

Originally Posted by busyx2 /img/forum/go_quote.gif One of the big dilemma is that a lot of times, a super-duper audiophile grade recording comes with so-so music/performance. Frustrating!

Yeah- Rebecca Pigeon comes to mind. The recordings sound great but she is horrible. She should stick to acting IMO.

 

[pdferguson]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tim3320070 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yeah- Rebecca Pigeon comes to mind. The recordings sound great but she is horrible. She should stick to acting IMO.

I've seen her acting, I think she should stick to music...

 

[budx3385]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AcousticDreams /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have no idea from what planet you came, but Google is your friend!

That was accurate AND amusing.

lordsegan, if you search on "high resolution digital music" you will find lots of sites, including an article with a very helpful list of hi-rez websites here

High-Quality Audiophile Download Services: How To Get High Resolution Music Files Without Lossy Compression

I'm about to follow that rabbit, too. Good Luck!